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(Updated November 2011) Background: As in many other areas of law, after the independent State of Somaliland joined Somalia to form the Somali Republic, almost all the Somaliland laws were replaced during the 1960s and the early 1970s with laws which were primarily Italian laws applicable to Somalia. At the time of the union, the military force of the new State of Somaliland was the “Somaliland Scouts” which were formed on 1st May 1942, but assumed this title on 1st July 1943. The laws applicable to the Regiment were set down in 1954 when it was designated as “the permanent regular military force of the Protectorate” and were found in the Somaliland Scouts Ordinance No. 9 of 1954. The Ordinance repealed the Kings African Rifles Ordinance and was apparently modelled along the lines of the Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) Regiment Ordinance. In Somalia, the Italian Military Code was extended to the territory with effect from 15 March 1951 under Ordinance No. 4 of 20 February 1951 and the structure of the military judiciary which was linked to the Regional Court, at first instance level, was set out in Law No. 10 of 20 February 1958. After the union of Somaliland and Somalia, Law No. 8 of 18 June 1963 delegated to the Government the power to issue within six months “a Military Penal Code applicable in time of peace and war and a Military Criminal Procedure Code”. This Law also set up a special Commission of 15 parliamentarians and 10 experts to come up with binding recommendations. The Codes which were adopted and passed at the end of the six months period were reproductions of the Italian Military Codes and reproduced below in Italian. An English language translation was produced later. After Somaliland re-asserted its sovereignty in May 1991 and established peace and state structures, the Somaliland Army was formally established on 2 February 1994. The Somaliland Charter 1993 and the Somaliland Constitution swept away Siyad Barre’s draconian militray and para-military laws. The Constitution sets out the courts of law of the land and, in Article 104, confines the jurisdiction of the military courts to dealing with criminal cases brought against the members of the armed forces, in times of peace or war, only. Article 104(2) adds that the structure and the prosecution service of the military courts shall be set out in a law, but no such law has been passed yet. Article 123 of the Constitution sets out the functions of the Armed Forces and adds that they shall always act in conformity with the provisions of the Constitution and the laws of the land. To underline the political control of the Armed Forces, Article 123(4) confirms that the Minister of Defence shall always be a civilian and not a member of the Armed Forces. As there have been no codes on military law passed by the Somaliland parliament yet, the pre 1969 codes are applied in this area since much of the legislation passed by the Somali Dictatorship in 1969 to 1990 is unlikely to pass the test of conformity with human rights and Islam test as set out in Article 130(5) of the Somaliland Constitution. The following pre 1969 Codes are therefore used in Somaliland. The Code of Military Criminal Law in Peace and War (Legislative Decree No: 2 of 24 December 1963): The 1963 Military Criminal Code is still used in Somaliland until a new Code is introduced. The Code consists of:
The official version of the Code was in Italian language and was based very closely (almost word for word) on the Italian Military Criminal Code. The English language translation of the 1963 Code, Part one (see below) prepared in the 1960s is set out below. [An English language translation of the Italian Military Criminal Code in Peace can also be found at this link. I have identified on the margin of each article of the Code the corresponding identical article of the 1963 Somali Code – Editor.]. The 208 Articles of the 1963 Military Criminal Code (Part one - Peace) can be found in English in the following sections (large pdf files) and in Italian (in one document) :
The 1963 Code of Military Criminal Law - Part Two - At War This part of the law deals with times of war and consists of 414 articles. It is attached here in Italian. No English translation is available. As expected from a military regime, there were many amendments to these Military Codes during the Military Dictatorship from October 1969 to the end of 1990. I shall only quote here the earliest changes in 1970 made to Part one (in peace) of the Code which were in these two laws (in Italian): The Code of Military Criminal Procedure in Peace and War (Legislative Decree No: 1 of 31 March 1964) The Code consists of 70 articles, with:
A copy of the Code (in Italian) - large pdf file - is available here. No English language translation is available. Organisation of the Military Judiciary: The amendments relating to the Organisation of the Military Judiciary were in Law No. 20 of 8 April 1970. As no new law relating to Somaliland, the structure of the military courts and military procurators follows the 1964 Law as amended by this 1970 Law:
Among the amendments that were made by the military dictatorship was the introduction of Regulations for the Execution of Military Death Sentences under a Decree passed by the Military Revolutionary Council within 10 days of the coup - Decree No.6 of 30 October 1969 (copy in Italian) - and relating to Article 47 of the Military Criminal Procedure Code 1964.
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